Blacklisting - how bosses targeted 'troublemakers'

Blacklist files of over 100 workers were submitted in evidence as part of Dave Smith’s Employment Tribunal.

The vast majority of the information on them came from building companies.

On some of the Consulting Association files there is open admission that the information may be wrong or relate to another person with a similar surname. Dave’s file refers to the views of his wife and people he is friendly with.

Dave was fired from a Schal site after presenting a petition from 150 workers complaining about “pigsty” toilets. He was a safety rep for the Ucatt union at the time.

The blacklist contains lists of workers involved in a number of construction disputes.

Most are described as “troublemakers”, which is a euphemism for trade unionist.

One worker is described as being “seen at left wing meeting”. The source for this is a construction company.

Some files include Socialist Worker reports of disputes. One describes a worker as an “SWP sympathiser”.

Many workers were blacklisted after industrial disputes in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Problems

These include those at the Jubilee Line tube extension, the Royal Opera House and Pfizer manufacturing sites in Kent.

In 2006 Socialist Worker revealed how Alan Wainwright, a former director of Balfour Beatty subsidiary Haden Young, produced a partial version of the blacklist.